Fan fiction

What is Club Jade?
Club Jade is a mailing list and community started in 1995 for discussion of Star Wars novels. Although originally discussion of Timothy Zahn’s novels and the character of Mara Jade were the group’s main focus, CJ has expanded to include all of Star Wars and recently, to become a more general list related to the sci-fi/fantasy genre as a whole. Over the years, CJ members have formed close friendships both online and in real life.

So, no, Club Jade is not just a blog. We started the blog in 2004 as a way of both coming out of our shell and informing ourselves and the fandom. It just kind of snowballed from there.

What is your official position on [insert issue here]?
CJ doesn’t really have any kind of ‘official position’ on such things, because opinions within the group on these issues are varied. Although we do share a common thread of being (or having been) Expanded Universe fans, CJ is not hostile to varying opinions, as long as they are expressed with mutual respect.

That said, sometimes we are very silly, and things get misinterpreted. Make sure that your sense of humor is fully functional before entering any CJ-heavy situation.

How do I join Club Jade?
We have a closed membership, and we have for many years. CJ was not originally a closed group, but various abuses led the leadership to close off list membership to all but those who are sponsored by existing members. Plus over the years we have developed something of a strange slant, and not everyone feels comfortable or fits in.

To join, someone needs to be nominated by at least 4 current members. This is much less of a barrier than it has been in the past, though! Try commenting here or chatting with us on Twitter, or even at cons. Fly casual!

What’s with the pineapples?
The pineapple is our signature fruit. Officially, they stand for hospitality.

Content

How do you know when Episode VII news is for real?
Our policy on news about the new movies is that it’s only confirmed once Lucasfilm (or Disney) says it is. Almost everything else is a rumor, and remains a rumor, until that point.

Please note that ‘unconfirmed’ does not mean a report is untrue. It simply means that it’s not yet official. It’s fairly common in Hollywood that news slips out – or is leaked – when one of the parties involved is sure that a deal is in place. This is what happened with J.J. Abrams, for instance. But Lucasfilm will not confirm a report on StarWars.com until everything is for sure – when everything is squared away and the contracts are signed. Until that point, there’s still a chance that things could fall apart, and thus, we refuse to consider something confirmed until they say so.

Seeing something on the news does not make it confirmed. Nor does seeing it on multiple news sites: Professional news sources will often post rumors as well, if they’re high profile enough. (Look for the keywords ‘reports’ or ‘sources.’ If no one from Lucasfilm is quoted with their name, or openly identified as ‘Lucasfilm PR,’ it’s not yet official.)

Now, most of us in CJ do remember the run-up to the prequels, and the wild rumormongering that took place then. So yes, we are and will remain plenty skeptical on many of the reports that come out, and take little or nothing on face value. Tis the season.

So what’s canon now? Are there going to be any books set after Fate of the Jedi and Crucible?
With the April 25, 2014 announcement, we now know that Lucasfilm is only treating the Star Wars films and The Clone Wars as “immovable objects of Star Wars history, the characters and events to which all other tales must align.” Rebels, the new films, the novels released after this announcement and the comic Darth Maul: Son of Dathomir (based on unproduced scripts from The Clone Wars) will all take a place in this new canon as well.

The previous Expanded Universe, aka nearly every single novel, comic and game released in the past 30 years, are now deemed ‘Legends.’ Parts of them may indeed be brought into the new canon, but there are no guarantees:

In order to give maximum creative freedom to the filmmakers and also preserve an element of surprise and discovery for the audience, Star Wars Episodes VII-IX will not tell the same story told in the post-Return of the Jedi Expanded Universe. While the universe that readers knew is changing, it is not being discarded. Creators of new Star Wars entertainment have full access to the rich content of the Expanded Universe. For example, elements of the EU are included in Star Wars Rebels. The Inquisitor, the Imperial Security Bureau, and Sienar Fleet Systems are story elements in the new animated series, and all these ideas find their origins in roleplaying game material published in the 1980s.

The novels are being kept in print. The future of the comics is a little more unclear, but mainly due to the license change from Dark Horse to Marvel in 2014.

Although Lucasfilm has not said firmly one way or another if they’re going to continue the Legends universe, it looks like, for now, that Fate of the Jedi and Crucible (and the Legacy comics) are indeed the end of the line.

How do you know when books and comics are released?
Book release dates are fairly stable – though they may change several months away, the nearer we are to the actual date, the more stable it is. (Please note we don’t recommend trusting Amazon when it comes to far-off dates or ‘news.’) Production issues can change things, but that’s a fairly rare occurrence. For release dates, we usually get our info either from Lucasbooks/Del Rey themselves, via updates from them (usually on Facebook these days) or Random House’s online catalog.

Books are almost always released on Tuesdays, and comics on Wednesday or occasionally Thursday due to holidays. Exceptions (like Harry Potter’s Saturday releases) are few and far between. Del Rey almost always has strict street dates on Star Wars novels, so don’t count on finding them on the shelves before their official date. (It happens, yes. But not often.)

Often books for younger readers don’t do strict street dating, so stores generally put those out as they receive them. But then, as you’ll note, we don’t generally cover those anyway.

Comic release dates are more volatile, which is why we don’t include them in our master schedule. It has to do with printing slots and other technical issues, which is why we solely base our comic release dates on the main comic distributor, Diamond. Every Monday (barring holidays, which can push it back) Diamond/Previews puts out a weekly release list. Those are the comics that will be in the comic shops that Wednesday. (Retailers receive a list on Fridays – see Midtown Comics – but things often change for the Monday list.)

You may see comic trades in bookstores earlier than the ‘official’ date, but we generally don’t include any comics in our weekly release post until they appear on Diamond’s Monday list, as that’s the only way to be sure.

Note: All this information applies to North America only. We generally don’t cover foreign release dates, and suggest you check with a website based in your country – Alas, the only site I’m aware of that does this is Star Wars Books, for the U.K.

Why don’t you cover much gaming/merchandise/etc?
There are plenty of sites out there that cater breathlessly to gamers and collectors. It doesn’t really interest us for the most part, so we don’t.

CJ’s main focus has always been the written Expanded Universe and, as of recently, news on the impending sequels. Nowadays it seems there are dozens of blogs that cover the EU exclusively, but back when we started… Not so much. Obviously we do occasionally touch on other things, but it’s not a priority.

Does Club Jade have a podcast?
No, and it’s not particularly likely we ever will. But Dunc, James and Paula have made appearances on other’s podcasts, so keep an eye on the tag.

Site stuff and other policies

What’s the difference between tags and categories?
Categories are broad; tags are specific. For instance, we have a books and comics category, but tags for Fate of the Jedi, Timothy Zahn, and other books, authors and series. We have around 20 categories, but about a thousand tags.

My comment was moderated/never showed up. What gives?
Several comments are moderated. It’s generally not personal – for instance, all first comments are automatically moderated. All of them. Some comments with certain keywords regarding hot-button issues are automatically monitored. Most comments are approved within a few hours at most.

Comments that are not approved are generally for a few reasons – being off topic, bad grammar, insults and the like. It’s okay if you disagree with us or things we link, but don’t be a jerk about it.

Our goal is for our comment section to be a pleasant place to converse – though obviously we’re rather snarky ourselves, so we don’t mind a bit of bite at times. (And no, we haven’t always been perfect!) But we don’t want to be a place for unhinged ranting and raving, either – there’s plenty of forums for that already. We strongly suggest you read Dunc’s post on fandom civility – it is very relevant to the types of comments we are and aren’t interested in hosting.

There’s a fine line to sarcasm and snark. If you cross it, or if you’re outright rude or otherwise inappropriate (we really don’t care if you want to ‘tap that,’) we may just choose not to host your comment.

We’re not super-strict in the grammar thing – none of us are English teachers (i.e. don’t worry if you mix up ‘who’ and ‘whom’) but this is not Facebook or an IM chat. You do have to be in the wheelhouse.

So, basically: Play nice. Be on topic. Type properly.

I run/work for another SW fansite/blog. Can it get on your blogroll?
We don’t take requests or do link exchanges. Please don’t ask. We don’t want to put too much importance on the whole concept of a blogroll, but when you get down to it, it’s a site’s own choice who to link and who not to link.

Can I link you?
In the same vein: Who you want to link is up to you, you don’t need to ask. If it’s us, great! Go right ahead.

We’re interested in advertising on your site…
We do have one ‘ad’ – Her Universe – but we only get paid a small percentage from it if readers click through and actually buy something. And the only reason we have it is because Her Universe is something that we actively support that actually pertains to our readership. So far? It’s bought us business cards.

But no, we’re not currently accepting advertising.

Fan fiction

Why don’t you update the fanfic archive anymore??
Club Jade’s interest in fanfic – Star Wars fanfic anyway – has waned quite a bit over the years. Fan fiction is no longer a main focus or group activity.

Will you put my fanfic on your site?
We are no longer accepting submissions. We leave the fanfic up as a memorial of sorts – it may very well be the oldest existing Star Wars archive online, but it’s no longer an active archive.

I just found a great fanfic in your archive, but it’s not finished. Where can I find the rest?
For a long time we accepted fanfic submissions, and it was up to the authors to provide us with new chapters. If they never finished the story or sent it to us, there’s really not much we can do. We hope that the author contact information is up to date on all stories, but there’s only so much we can do.